Archive for February 23, 2010

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Jerusalem - The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service's most valuable source in the militant organization's leadership, Haaretz has learned.
Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank. The intelligence he supplied Israel led to the...

Sweden - By this point, we're all familiar with augmented reality, but Swedish mobile software firm The Astonishing Tribe is taking information overload to the next logical step: augmented identity. Mashing up face recognition technology, computer vision, cloud computing, and augmented reality with the complex digital lives many of us lead on the Internet, TAT has created an app that allows you...

Ashkelon, Israel - Because of problems providing evidence, two of the men charged in the murder of Ziona Samin, the wife of a prominent rabbi in Ashkelon, were convicted as part of a plea bargain on lesser counts and thus issued lighter sentences.
The Beersheba District Court handed down an 11-year prison sentence on Tuesday to Igor Kigelman, convicted of aiding and abetting manslaughter and...

Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn’s public housing buildings could receive a critical upgrade if Albany signals its approval this year.
A new bill passed by the State Assembly this week will seek to qualify 21 state and city developments, which comprise 20,143 apartment units, for federal public housing subsidies provided by the federal government’s economic stimulus package.
“I am proud to...

Port-au-Prince, Haiti - IsraAID relief and rehabilitation programs in Haiti have been expanded from emergency medical aid for last month's earthquake to include post trauma, establishment of child friendly spaces programs and community centers through its member group Tevel Be'Tzedek.
The Israeli team of six post-trauma experts and social workers also includes two Israeli therapists from the...

Israel - Chief Rabbis Yonah Metzger and Shlomo Amar are in favor of banning fur imports. An official opinion authored by the two on the matter will be presented at a discussion of the Knesset Education Committee Wednesday, which is preparing the bill for a Knesset vote.
According to the opinion, Rabbi Amar says that certain rabbinical laws surrounding the Sabbath were suspended to prevent the...

Jerusalem - The Jerusalem Institute of Justice has turned to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein in a request to disband the Yad L'achim organization and declare it a terrorist organization.
According to the institute, Jewish terrorist Jack Teitel was a member of Yad L'achim for five years. The institute's request lists a long line of allegedly illegal acts committed by the organization in...

Manhattan, NY - Three weeks ago, hundreds of disgruntled New York workers braved the cold weather to march 20 blocks in protest of unfair wage practices. On Tuesday, they received some vindication. One of the objects of their protest, David Cohen, owner of fast fashion, seven-store chain Mystique Boutique, was arrested by the state attorney general's office for cheating his employees out of $1.5...

Baltimore, MD - Those attractive Israelis you may see at the mall hawking colorful beauty and hair products from the Dead Sea may not be as innocuous as they seem.
Many are in the U.S. illegally, working in violation of their tourist visas, and the U.S Department of Homeland Security has taken notice.
In early December, 12 Israelis were rounded up in Kennewick, in eastern Washington. One...

New York, NY - You’re a white Christian living in a developed Western country and your neighbor is an Arab Muslim. It’s not a rare setting.
Once a year you notice that for an entire month your neighbor doesn’t eat or drink during the day. You hear that this is known as the month of Ramadan. You are curious and worldly and you would like to know more about your neighbor’s culture and...

Brooklyn, NY -A Brooklyn Man, was sentenced today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Vincent DelGiudice to 437 years in prison for the rape of three victims, the burglary of four additional women, and the robbery of a male livery cab driver, County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes announced on Tuesday.
In February and March 2008, Boker Thomas, 31, followed seven women into apartment...

Jerusalem - VIN News posted earlier an Editorial by Rabbi Yair Hoffman criticizing an event where an Israeli Rabbi in a Yeshiva for Baalei Teshuva in Yerushalayim is shown on a YouTube clip holding a ceremony destroying a laptop to protest the danger of the Internet.
Some readers have emailed us claiming it was a Purim Prank, we decided to verify the facts of the story, and sure enough it...

New York - The U.S. attorney's office announced today that at least 22 people have been charged in connection with a city-based identity-theft ring that allegedly involved Department of Motor Vehicles employees selling stolen identities to convicted felons.
Authorities say customers paid the DMV employees between $7,000 to $10,000 for the stolen identities. The defendants were charged with...

Long Island, NY - A judge’s ruling that it was feared would undermine the ability of a beit din (halachic court) to arbitrate matters of Jewish law in New York has been tossed out on appeal.
In December 2008, Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Bruce M. Balter overturned a decision of the Beth Din of America that he found to be “grossly irrational” and “violative of public policy.”
The...

Bnei Brak, Israel - The streets of Bnei Brak have been plastered in recent days with posters distributed by the municipality ahead of the Purim holiday. These aren't invitations to a Purim play or a festive holiday ball, but a campaign aimed at young adults not to smoke during the holiday's festivities.
The campaign, which goes by the title "Israel's great scholars against smoking," is meant...